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At least 1,531 records · Page 85

Study of the Residual Background Events in Ground Data from the ASTRO-HSXS Microcalorimeter

The measured instrumental background of the XRS calorimeter spectrometer of Suzaku had several sources, including primary cosmic rays and secondary particles interacting with the pixels and with the silicon structure of the array. Prior to the launch of Suzaku, several data sets were taken without x-ray illumination to study the characteristics and timing of background signals produced in the array and anti-coincidence detector. Even though the source of the background in the laboratory was different from that in low-earth orbit (muons and environmental gamma-rays on the ground versus Galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) protons and alpha particles in space), the study of correlations and properties of populations of rare events was useful for establishing the preliminary screening parameters needed for selection of good science data. Sea-level muons are singly charged minimum-ionizing particles, like the GCR protons, and thus were good probes of the effectiveness of screening via the signals from the anti-coincidence detector. Here we present the first analysis of the on-ground background of the SXS calorimeter of Astro-H. On XRS, the background prior to screening was completely dominated by coincident events on many pixels resulting from the temperature pulse arising from each large energy deposition (greater than 200 keV) into the silicon frame around the array. The improved heat-sinking of the SXS array compared with XRS eliminated these thermal disturbances, greatly reducing the measured count rate in the absence of illumination. The removal of these events has made it easier to study the nature of the residual background and to look for additional event populations. We compare the SXS residual background to that measured in equivalent ground data for XRS and discuss these preliminary results.

ASTRO-H↗

Come Hell or High-Water: Challenges for Adapting Pacific Northwest Water Law

The Pacific Northwest region of the United States has been recognized as a leader in crafting water laws that work to balance human needs and ecological considerations. However, this region is experiencing changing dynamics that test the strength of existing water policies and laws. Such dynamics include increasing populations, new and exempt uses, quantification of tribal treaty rights, species protection, renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty, and the impacts of a changing climate. Together, these dynamics are stressing the legal framework, which remains vital to ensuring sustainable water supplies now and into the future. Here, the history behind water resources management in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana provides the foundation for the laws in place today. Although all four states share regulatory features, nuances specific to each state have tremendously affected their governance structures and ability to adapt to changing dynamics. Although a challenge to meet these changing dynamics, collaborative efforts offer creative opportunities for meeting current and future needs.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Time-Resolved Structural Kinetics of an Organic Mixed Ionic–Electronic Conductor

The structure and packing of organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors have an especially significant effect on transport properties. In operating devices, this structure is not fixed but is responsive to changes in electrochemical potential, ion intercalation, and solvent swelling. Toward this end, the steady-state and transient structure of the model organic mixed conductor, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), is characterized using multimodal time-resolved operando techniques. Steady-state operando X-ray scattering reveals a doping-induced lamellar expansion of 1.6 Å followed by 0.4 Å relaxation at high doping levels. Time-resolved operando X-ray scattering reveals asymmetric rates of lamellar structural change during doping and dedoping that do not directly depend on potential or charging transients. Further, time-resolved spectroscopy establishes a link between structural transients and the complex kinetics of electronic charge carrier subpopulations, in particular the polaron–bipolaron equilibrium. These findings provide insight into the factors limiting the response time of organic mixed-conductor-based devices, and present the first real-time observation of the structural changes during doping and dedoping of a conjugated polymer system via X-ray scattering.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

HectoMAP: The Complete Redshift Survey (Data Release 2)

HectoMAP is a dense redshift survey of 95,403 galaxies based primarily on MMT spectroscopy with a median redshift z = 0.345. The survey covers 54.64 deg 2 in a 1$_{.}^{°}$5 wide strip across the northern sky centered at a decl. of 43$_{.}^{°}$25. We report the redshift, the spectral indicator D n 4000, and the stellar mass. The red-selected survey is 81% complete for 55,962 galaxies with (g - r) > 1 and r < 20.5; it is 72% complete for 32,908 galaxies with (g - r > 1, (r - i) > 0.5 and 20.5 < r < 21.3. Comparison of the survey basis SDSS photometry with the HSC-SSP photometry demonstrates that HectoMAP provides complete magnitude-limited surveys based on either photometric system. We update the comparison between the HSC-SSP photometric redshifts with HectoMAP spectroscopic redshifts; the comparison demonstrates that the HSC-SSP photometric redshifts have improved between the second and third data releases. HectoMAP is a foundation for examining the quiescent galaxy population (63% of the survey), clusters of galaxies, and the cosmic web. HectoMAP is completely covered by the HSC-SSP survey, thus enabling a variety of strong- and weak-lensing investigations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The influence of preexisting host rock damage on fault network localization

The transition from stable to unstable fracture propagation occurs when fractures begin to interact and link. Thus, fracture network coalescence controls how rocks and engineered structures fail. Here, to constrain the factors that influence localization in shear zones under brittle conditions, we build discrete element method models with a rough fault embedded in a shear zone. We add varying numbers of diffuse, randomly-placed weaknesses to examine the influence of diffuse damage on fracture network localization. The number of weaknesses controls the localization behavior of the fault network and the final fault geometry. We quantify localization using the Gini coefficient of the fracture volume, which measures the nonuniformity in a population. Each model generally increases in localization toward failure. However, models with more diffuse damage experience delocalization phases that are superimposed on the overall trend of increasing localization. The observed link between delocalization and host rock damage may help explain the varying localization of low magnitude seismicity in southern California. Models with more diffuse damage produce more complex fault geometries comprised of several parallel strands of wing cracks. The propagation of these wing cracks reduces the shear stress acting on the model boundaries, indicating that this fracture development increases the mechanical efficiency of the system.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Cosmological constraints on light but massive relics

Many scenarios of physics beyond the standard model predict new light, weakly coupled degrees of freedom, populated in the early universe and remaining as cosmic relics today. Due to their high abundances, these relics can significantly affect the evolution of the universe. For instance, massless relics produce a shift ΔN eff to the cosmic expectation of the effective number of active neutrinos. Massive relics, on the other hand, additionally become part of the cosmological dark matter in the later universe, though their light nature allows them to freely stream out of potential wells. This produces novel signatures in the large-scale structure (LSS) of the universe, suppressing matter fluctuations at small scales. Here, we present the first general search for such light (but massive) relics (LiMRs) with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and LSS data, scanning the 2D parameter space of their masses m X and temperatures $T^{(0)}_{X}$ today. In the conservative minimum-temperature ($T^{(0)}_{X}$ = 0.91 K) scenario, we rule out Weyl (and higher-spin) fermions -- such as the gravitino -- with m X ≥ 2.26 eV at 95% C.L., and set analogous limits of m X ≤ 11.2,1.06,1.56 eV for scalar, vector, and Dirac-fermion relics. This is the first search for LiMRs with joint CMB, weak-lensing, and full-shape galaxy data; we demonstrate that weak-lensing data is critical for breaking parameter degeneracies, while full-shape information presents a significant boost in constraining power relative to analyses with only baryon acoustic oscillation parameters. Under the combined strength of these datasets, our constraints are the tightest and most comprehensive to date.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

FAIRification, Quality Assessment, and Missingness Pattern Discovery for Spatiotemporal Photovoltaic Data

The ongoing growth of the photovoltaic market has pushed the demand for power forecasting and performance evaluation for a huge population of PV power plants. Through access to a large number of time series data sets from different power plants, we have found common issues that impede the modeling process. Namely, the time series data are hard to transfer between groups due to differences in variable nomenclature, and the quality of the data sets can vary. We address the issue of variable nomenclature by FAIRifying spatiotemporal PV time series data. Through the creation of a solar power plant ontology, we propose standards for the naming and structure of metadata used to describe the data from these power plants. Using the structure from this ontology, we have developed both R and Python packages for the automation of the FAIRification process. We have also developed an R package that automates the analysis of the quality of a data set through the designation of letter grades. With access to large time series data sets across many power plants, we can utilize spatiotemporal coherence between the sites in order to improve the quality of our data. To solve the issue of data missingness, we propose the use of Spatiotemporal-GNN autoencoders to detect and impute missing values from a data set by utilizing data from power plants nearby.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

The ionization cone, obscured nucleus, and gaseous outflow in NGC 3281 - A prototypical Seyfert 2 galaxy?

Narrow-band images and long-slit spectroscopy of the central region of the highly inclined Seyfert galaxy NGC 3281 are presented. The image of the continuum-subtracted forbidden 4959 emission line shows a very clear conical morphology for the high-excitation gas. A possible similar structure can also be seen on the other side of the nucleus, but is dimmed by patchy obscuration in the dusk. The continuum images and long-slit spectroscopy are used to derive and map the extinction in the inner regions of NGC 3281; heavy obscuration is found along the present line of sight to the apex of the cone, suggesting that the true nucleus is located at the apex and is obscured. Low-resolution long-slit spectra are used to study the stellar population, which is found to be old, uniform within 2.5 kpc of the nucleus, and typical of the bulges of early-type galaxies. It is suggested that NGC3281 may be another example of a 'hidden' Seyfert 1, even though there is no direct evidence for a broad-line region in this particular galaxy.

Storchi-Bergmann, Thaisa↗

Cultural Challenges Faced by American Mission Control Personnel Working with International Partners

Operating the International Space Station (ISS) involves an indefinite, continuous series of long-duration international missions, and this requires an unprecedented degree of cooperation across multiple sites, organizations, and nations. Both junior and senior mission control personnel have had to find ways to address the cultural challenges inherent in such work, but neither have had systematic training in how to do so. The goals of this study were to identify and evaluate the major cultural challenges faced by ISS mission control personnel and to highlight the approaches that they have found most effective to surmount these challenges. We pay particular attention to the approaches successfully employed by the senior personnel and the training needs identified by the junior personnel. We also evaluate the extent to which the identified approaches and needs are consistent across the two samples. METHODS: Participants included a sample of 14 senior ISS flight controllers and a contrasting sample of 12 more junior controllers. All participants were mission operations specialists chosen on the basis of having worked extensively with international partners. Data were collected using a semi-structured qualitative interview and content analyzed using an iterative process with multiple coders and consensus meetings to resolve discrepancies. RESULTS: The senior respondents had substantial consensus on several cultural challenges and on key strategies for dealing with them, and they offered a wide range of specific tactics for implementing these strategies. Data from the junior respondents will be presented for the first time at the meeting. DISCUSSION: Although specific to American ISS personnel, our results are consistent with recent management, cultural, and aerospace research on other populations. We aim to use our results to improve training for current and future mission control personnel working in international or multicultural mission operations teams.

Clement, J. L.↗

Half-life measurement of the 199-keV isomeric state in Ga 76

Background: Isomeric states in atomic nuclei are a sensitive probe of their underlying microscopic structure and can be used to study the evolution of shell structure far from stability. Recent studies have identified and provided detailed spectroscopy of isomers in neutron-rich nuclei with Z = 28-50. Isomeric states in the odd-odd gallium isotopes have been reported for all gallium isotopes from A = 72 to A = 80 with the exception of 76 Ga. Purpose: The purpose of this experiment was to observe short-lived isomeric states in the vicinity of 78 Ni. Methods: In-beam fragmentation of a 86 Kr primary beam at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory produced radioactive ions which were delivered to and deposited in a Ce Br 3 scintillator coupled to a position-sensitive photomultiplier tube. Beta-delayed γ rays were measured by ancillary HPGe clover and LaBr 3 detectors which surrounded the implantation detector. Results: The previously observed J π = 1 + , 199-keV level in 76 Ga, populated following the β decay of 76 Zn, was identified as isomeric with a half-life of 34(1) stat. (8) sys. ns. Shell-model calculations suggest this state is formed by the coupling of protons in negative-parity configurations to 1/2 - neutron configurations. Transition strengths assuming a ground-state spin of J = 2 and J = 3 were determined from the experimental data.

59 ≤ A ≤ 89↗

Age structure of refractory interstellar dust and isotopic consequences

A sputtering and recycling Monte Carlo model, developed by Liffman and Clayton (1988) is used to calculate the distribution of existence times of the matter in interstellar dust composed of refractory metals. The mean age of each dust particle is defined not as the time it has existed but rather as the mass-weighted existence times of its parts at t = 6 Gyr of the modeled solar system formation. It is shown that Galactic evolution generates a mean correlation, applying to large numbers of particles binned according to size rather than according to individual particles, whose mean ages fluctuate statistically. The cosmochemical consequence is that if interstellar particles can be dynamically sorted into separate size populations during the aggregation history of solar system bodies, the collections of larger grains will constitute matter that is chemically older than collections of smaller grains. The macroscopic age difference generates isotopic anomalies by virtue of the time dependence of the secondary/primary nucleosynthesis yields. Results are compared with three different prescriptions for the sputtering of interstellar dust.

Clayton, Donald D.↗

Formation of SMBH seeds in Population III star clusters through collisions: the importance of mass loss

ABSTRACT Runaway collisions in dense clusters may lead to the formation of supermassive black hole (SMBH) seeds, and this process can be further enhanced by accretion, as recent models of SMBH seed formation in Population III star clusters have shown. This may explain the presence of SMBHs already at high redshift, z > 6. However, in this context, mass loss during collisions was not considered and could play an important role for the formation of the SMBH seed. Here, we study the effect of mass loss, due to collisions of protostars, in the formation and evolution of a massive object in a dense primordial cluster. We consider both constant mass-loss fractions as well as analytic models based on the stellar structure of the collision components. Our calculations indicate that mass loss can significantly affect the final mass of the possible SMBH seed. Considering a constant mass loss of 5 per cent for every collision, we can lose between 60–80 per cent of the total mass that is obtained if mass loss were not considered. Using instead analytical prescriptions for mass loss, the mass of the final object is reduced by 15–40 per cent, depending on the accretion model for the cluster we study. Altogether, we obtain masses of the order of $10^4\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$, which are still massive enough to be SMBH seeds.

Alister Seguel, P. J.↗

The leucine-rich repeats in allelic barley MLA immune receptors define specificity towards sequence-unrelated powdery mildew avirulence effectors with a predicted common RNase-like fold

Nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat-containing receptors (NLRs) in plants can detect avirulence (AVR) effectors of pathogenic microbes. The Mildew locus a (Mla) NLR gene has been shown to confer resistance against diverse fungal pathogens in cereal crops. In barley, Mla has undergone allelic diversification in the host population and confers isolate-specific immunity against the powdery mildew-causing fungal pathogen Blumeria graminis forma specialis hordei (Bgh). We previously isolated the Bgh effectors AVR A1 , AVR A7 , AVR A9 , AVR A13 , and allelic AVR A10 /AVR A22 , which are recognized by matching MLA1, MLA7, MLA9, MLA13, MLA10 and MLA22, respectively. Here, we extend our knowledge of the Bgh effector repertoire by isolating the AVR A6 effector, which belongs to the family of catalytically inactive RNase-Like Proteins expressed in Haustoria (RALPHs). Using structural prediction, we also identified RNase-like folds in AVR A1 , AVR A7 , AVR A10 /AVR A22 , and AVR A13 , suggesting that allelic MLA recognition specificities could detect structurally related avirulence effectors. To better understand the mechanism underlying the recognition of effectors by MLAs, we deployed chimeric MLA1 and MLA6, as well as chimeric MLA10 and MLA22 receptors in plant co-expression assays, which showed that the recognition specificity for AVR A1 and AVR A6 as well as allelic AVR A10 and AVR A22 is largely determined by the receptors’ C-terminal leucine-rich repeats (LRRs). The design of avirulence effector hybrids allowed us to identify four specific AVR A10 and five specific AVR A22 aa residues that are necessary to confer MLA10- and MLA22-specific recognition, respectively. This suggests that the MLA LRR mediates isolate-specific recognition of structurally related AVR A effectors. Thus, functional diversification of multi-allelic MLA receptors may be driven by a common structural effector scaffold, which could be facilitated by proliferation of the RALPH effector family in the pathogen genome.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

30 cm Drop Modeling

This report documents modeling and analysis of the 30 cm cask drop scenario for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) casks. The 30 cm drop is an important hypothetical dynamic loading scenario for SNF because 10 CFR 71.71 defines testing requirements for normal conditions of transport (NCT) of SNF packages, and free drop (of 30 cm for the heaviest packages) tests are required. Other NCT conditions specified in 10 CFR 71.71 include vibration normally incident to transport, and DOE’s multimodal transportation test (MMTT) and related analysis concluded that mechanical shock and vibration incident to transportation is negligible for SNF structural integrity because the loads are so small. The SNF cask 30 cm drop has a lot more potential to cause damage to SNF because the kinetic energy and momentum of the system is stopped abruptly during the cask impact event. Test data and model predictions both agree that the SNF assemblies are subjected to significantly higher loads in a cask drop event than normal transportation shock and vibration, but currently there is no reason to expect gross structural damage of the fuel assembly or widespread SNF cladding failure as a result of a 30 cm cask drop. The ultimate goal of this work is to close the knowledge gap of stress profiles on SNF rods and fuel assembly components during NCT, and this report describes the progress toward reaching that goal as well as a plan for finishing this work over the next year or two. Key remaining tasks include refining the fuel assembly model, calculating a selection of specific fuel assembly cases to populate the damage model, and finally running the damage model to predict the full general response range of 30 cm drop loads on SNF.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Assessing residential activity in a home plumbing system simulator: monitoring the occurrence and relationship of major opportunistic pathogens and phagocytic amoebas

Opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPPs) have been detected in buildings’ plumbing systems causing waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States. In this study, we monitored the occurrence of OPPPs along with free-living amoeba (FLA) and investigated the effects of residential activities in a simulated home plumbing system (HPS). Water samples were collected from various locations in the HPS and analyzed for three major OPPPs: Legionella pneumophila, nontuberculous mycobacterial species (e.g., Mycobacterium avium, M. intracellulare, and M. abscessus), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa along with two groups of amoebas (Acanthamoeba and Vermamoeba vermiformis). A metagenomic approach was also used to further characterize the microbial communities. Results show that the microbial community is highly diverse with evidence of spatial and temporal structuring influenced by environmental conditions. L. pneumophila was the most prevalent pathogen (86% of samples), followed by M. intracellulare (66%) and P. aeruginosa (21%). Interestingly, M. avium and M. abscessus were not detected in any samples. The data revealed a relatively low prevalence of Acanthamoeba spp. (4%), while V. vermiformis was widely detected (81%) across all the sampling locations within the HPS. Locations with a high concentration of L. pneumophila and M. intracellulare coincided with the highest detection of V. vermiformis, suggesting the potential growth of both populations within FLA and additional protection in drinking water. After a period of stagnation lasting at least 2-weeks, the concentrations of OPPPs and amoeba immediately increased and then decreased gradually back to the baseline. Furthermore, monitoring the microbial population after drainage of the hot water tank and partial drainage of the entire HPS demonstrated no significant mitigation of the selected OPPPs. This study demonstrates that these organisms can adjust to their environment during such events and may survive in biofilms and/or grow within FLA, protecting them from stressors in the supplied water.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Delta L: An Apparatus for Measuring Macromolecule Crystal Growth Rates in Microgravity

Strongly diffracting high quality macromolecule crystals of suitable volume are keenly sought for X-ray diffraction analysis so that high-resolution molecular structure data can be obtained. Such data is of tremendous value to medical research, agriculture and commercial biotechnology. In previous studies by many investigators microgravity has been reported in some instances to improve biological macromolecule X-ray crystal quality while little or no improvement was observed in other cases. A better understanding of processes effecting crystal quality improvement in microgravity will therefore be of great benefit in optimizing crystallization success in microgravity. In ground based research with the protein lysozyme we have previously shown that a population of crystals grown under the same solution conditions, exhibit a variation in X-ray diffraction properties (Judge et al., 1999). We have also observed that under the same solution conditions, individual crystals will grow at slightly different growth rates. This phenomenon is called growth rate dispersion. For small molecule materials growth rate dispersion has been directly related to crystal quality (Cunningham et al., 1991; Ristic et al., 1991). We therefore postulate that microgravity may act to improve crystal quality by reducing growth rate dispersion. If this is the case then as different, Materials exhibit different degrees of growth rate dispersion on the ground then growth rate dispersion could be used to screen which materials may benefit the most from microgravity crystallization. In order to assess this theory the Delta L hardware is being developed so that macromolecule crystal growth rates can be measured in microgravity. Crystal growth rate is defined as the change or delta in crystal size (defined as a characteristic length, L) over time; hence the name of the hardware. Delta L will consist of an optics, a fluids, and a data acquisition sub-assemblies. The optics assembly will consist of a video microscope camera mounted on three axis computer controlled translation stages. The fluids assembly consists of macromolecule and precipitant reservoirs, a temperature controlled growth cell and waste container, The data acquisition is achieved by using a frame-gabber, with images being stored on a hard drive. In operation, macromolecule and precipitant solution will be injected into the temperature controlled growth cell. As macromolecule crystals grow, the video microscope camera controlled by the translation stages, will be used to locate and record images of individual crystals, returning to the same crystals at specific time intervals. The images will be stored on the hard drive and used to calculate the crystal growth rate. To prevent vibrations interfering in the crystal growth rate measurements (Snell et al., 1997) Delta L will be used in connection with the Glovebox Integrated Microgravity Isolation Technology (g-LIMIT) inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Judge, Russell A.↗

A Survey of Collectives

Due to the increasing sophistication and miniaturization of computational components, complex, distributed systems of interacting agents are becoming ubiquitous. Such systems, where each agent aims to optimize its own performance, but where there is a well-defined set of system-level performance criteria, are called collectives. The fundamental problem in analyzing/designing such systems is in determining how the combined actions of self-interested agents leads to 'coordinated' behavior on a iarge scale. Examples of artificial systems which exhibit such behavior include packet routing across a data network, control of an array of communication satellites, coordination of multiple deployables, and dynamic job scheduling across a distributed computer grid. Examples of natural systems include ecosystems, economies, and the organelles within a living cell. No current scientific discipline provides a thorough understanding of the relation between the structure of collectives and how well they meet their overall performance criteria. Although still very young, research on collectives has resulted in successes both in understanding and designing such systems. It is eqected that as it matures and draws upon other disciplines related to collectives, this field will greatly expand the range of computationally addressable tasks. Moreover, in addition to drawing on them, such a fully developed field of collective intelligence may provide insight into already established scientific fields, such as mechanism design, economics, game theory, and population biology. This chapter provides a survey to the emerging science of collectives.

Tumer, Kagan↗

Modulating coordinate site occupancy in high-entropy spinel electrocatalysts

High entropy spinel oxides provide a versatile platform for electrocatalysis because multiple metal cations can be incorporated into a single crystalline lattice, enabling tunable electronic structures. However, controlling how these cations distribute between tetrahedral and octahedral coordination sites remains a major challenge, limiting rational catalyst design. Here, we modulate cation coordination site occupancy between tetrahedral and octahedral sites in a Co–Fe–Cr–Mn–Ni framework by introducing a sixth cation (Zn, Ga, Mg, or Al) with distinct site preference energies. Using density functional theory, synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and magnetic circular dichroism, we demonstrate that Zn preferentially occupies tetrahedral sites, driving increased octahedral occupancy of cobalt. This redistribution increases the population of octahedrally coordinated cobalt in mixed oxidation states, enhances electrical conductivity, and improves oxygen evolution reaction activity. Our findings establish coordination site occupancy as a critical design parameter, providing a strategic pathway for tailoring multicomponent spinel electrocatalysts with optimized performance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗